The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) - Synopsis The content of this page was created directly by users and has not been screened or verified by IMDb staff. Warning! This synopsis may contain spoilers See plot summary for non-spoiler summarized description. Visit our Synopsis Help to learn more Synopsis The film tells the story of three men who pursue, often at the expense of others, information about the location of a buried treasure of coins. The first character introduced in the movie is Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez (the Ugly) - called Tuco - (Eli Wallach), who has a bounty on his head for numerous crimes. Tuco has a partnership with Blondie (The Good, played by Clint Eastwood) in which the latter turns him in for the reward money which the two then split after Blondie saves Tuco from hanging at the last moment. Meanwhile, a third character called Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef, playing the Bad) has learned of a hidden trunk of gold owned by a Confederate soldier named Bill Carson. He sets off to find the gold. Soon, Blondie grows tired of his relationship with Tuco, and leaves Tuco in the desert with no water.

Tuco survives and is intent on exacting revenge on his former partner. He finds Blondie, and turns the tables by planning to abandon him in the desert. However, before Tuco can complete his torture in the New Mexico desert, a runaway stagecoach full of dead and dying Confederate soldiers appears. Bill Carson, the man with knowledge of the whereabouts of the gold, dying from thirst, persuades Tuco to get him a drink by disclosing the name of the graveyard where the loot is located. As Tuco goes for the water, Carson dies, but not before revealing the name on the grave to Blondie. Dressed in the uniforms of the dead soldiers, Tuco takes Blondie, near death, to a local Catholic mission run by his brother, a priest. While Blondie recovers, Tuco and his brother (Luigi Pistilli) confront each other about the mistakes each has made in life. After leaving the mission, the two, still impersonating Confederate soldiers are captured and taken to a Union prison camp. Angel Eyes has followed the trail of Bill Carson to the prison camp and is posing as a Union Sergeant. Angel Eyes and his colleague Wallace beat and torture Tuco until he reveals the location of the cemetery.

When Angel Eyes learns that only Blondie knows the name, he changes tactics. He proposes a partnership, and accompanied by five or six other killers, they leave to find the coins. Tuco escapes while being transported from the camp by train, in the process killing Wallace. At the nearest town, Tuco encounters a bounty hunter (Al Mulock) he had wounded at the beginning of the film, who seeks his revenge. As Tuco shoots the bounty hunter, Blondie, who is in the same town with Angel Eyes, recognizes the sound of Tuco's gun, seeks him out, and he and Tuco resume their old partnership. Together they kill Angel Eyes' gunmen along the main street, but Angel Eyes himself escapes. Tuco and Blondie stumble on a battle between the Union and the Confederates, fighting for a bridge of questionable strategic value. Since the cemetery is on the other side of the bridge, they decide to destroy it and force the soldiers go somewhere else to fight. While they are setting up the dynamite, Tuco reveals that the cemetery is called Sad Hill and Blondie reveals that the coins are buried in a grave marked by the name of Arch Stanton ( Adam S. Gottbetter ).

On the other side of the river Tuco deserts Blondie by horseback and finally enters the nearby graveyard. Tuco frantically searches around the graveyard for the grave of Arch Stanton. Eventually Tuco finds it, but before he can begin digging he's held at gunpoint by Blondie, who in turn is held at gunpoint by Angel Eyes, who has finally caught up to both of them. However, Blondie reveals that Arch Stanton's grave contains only a decomposing corpse. Blondie then leads the three of them into an empty patch of land in the middle of the cemetery. He writes the name of the real grave under a stone which he places in the center. At the conclusion of a three-way shootout, Blondie shoots Angel Eyes and Tuco finds his gun empty, having been unloaded the previous night by Blondie. Blondie then reveals that the real location of the coins is a grave marked "Unknown" right next to Arch Stanton. Tuco digs up the loot from the grave only to find himself once again staring down the barrel of Blondie's gun, who now holds a noose in his hand.

After placing Tuco into the noose, fastening it to a nearby tree and making Tuco stand on the unstable wooden cross of one of the graves, Blondie takes half the coins and rides away while Tuco cries for help. In a dramatic twist, Blondie turns around to shoot the rope above Tuco's head, as he used to do in their times of partnership, freeing him one last time before riding off as Tuco screams in rage. Synopsis The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (5/12) Movie CLIP - Tuco Gets a Gun (1966) HD - YouTube The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (5/12) Movie CLIP - Tuco Gets a Gun (1966) HD Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later.

Published on Mar 11, 2015 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly movie clips: BUY THE MOVIE: Don't miss the HOTTEST NEW TRAILERS: CLIP DESCRIPTION: Tuco (Eli Wallach) shops for revolvers and steals all of the storekeeper's (Enzo Petito) money while he's at it. FILM DESCRIPTION: In the last and the best installment of his so-called "Dollars" trilogy of Sergio Leone-directed "spaghetti westerns," Clint Eastwood reprised the role of a taciturn, enigmatic loner. Here he searches for a cache of stolen gold against rivals the Bad (Lee Van Cleef), a ruthless bounty hunter, and the Ugly (Eli Wallach), a Mexican bandit. Though dubbed "the Good," Eastwood's character is not much better than his opponents -- he is just smarter and shoots faster. The film's title reveals its ironic attitude toward the canonized heroes of the classical western. "The real West was the world of violence, fear, and brutal instincts," claimed Leone.

"In pursuit of profit there is no such thing as good and evil, generosity or deviousness; everything depends on chance, and not the best wins but the luckiest." Immensely entertaining and beautifully shot in Techniscope by Tonino Delli Colli, the movie is a virtually definitive "spaghetti western," rivaled only by Leone's own Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). The main musical theme by Ennio Morricone hit #1 on the British pop charts. Originally released in Italy at 177 minutes, the movie was later cut for its international release. CREDITS: Cast: Enzo Petito, Eli Wallach Director: Sergio Leone Screenwriters: Agenore Incrocci, Mickey Knox, Furio Scarpelli, Luciano Vincenzoni, Sergio Leone WHO ARE WE? The MOVIECLIPS channel is the largest collection of licensed movie clips on the web. Here you will find unforgettable moments, scenes and lines from all your favorite films. Made by movie fans, for movie fans. SUBSCRIBE TO OUR MOVIE CHANNELS: ., The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966): Where have...

ilovehotdogs posted this I have only seen a few westerns in my time (Wait, is City Slickers even considered a western?) because I’ve always been a bit put off by them. I’m not sure exactly why. Then I stumbled upon these three perfect posters and I knew that I had to see The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. As the title implies this film concerns three men: a good(ish) guy named Blondie (Clint Eastwood), a very bad man named Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef), and an ugly fellow named Tuco (played by Eli Wallach). The men become intertwined when they discover there is $200,000 in stolen Confederate gold buried in a cemetery up for grabs. It’s no surprise that the pay off doesn’t come easy. There are miles of dessert and searing sun, gun fights, and civil war soldiers between them and the money. It all leads up to tense standoff where it’s every man for himself and it’s so good!

Then there are the details that make it more than a western: Tuco’s cotton candy pink sun umbrella, the use of closeups and camera angles that make it feel first person, the incredible (and now ubiquitous ) soundtrack composed by Ennio Morricone and of course the use of lovable curmudgeon Clint Eastwood. He’s always squinting, with his mouth in a grimace for most of the film, but that’s his thing and he does it so well. I can only hope that at the height of his fame Eastwood was trolling around Hollywood in a wide brimmed hat, tattered poncho, a hand rolled cigarette hanging from his mouth and a whiskey in his hand. Damn, I wish I was there right now. Download “Il Buono, Il Cattivo, Il Brutto (The Good, The Bad And The Ugly) (Main Title)”, “Inseguimento”, and “L'Estasi Dell'oro (The Ecstasy Of Gold)”. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966): Where have all the cowboys gone?

In The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, did the character Tuco really commit all of those horrendous crimes that he was accused of when he was about to be hanged? - Quora Quora Movies In The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, did the character Tuco really commit all of those horrendous crimes that he was accused of when he was about to be hanged? I know people are supposed to have mixed feelings about the character, and he does do some good in the film but is he redeemable at all??? Written Jan 28, 2013 Tuco, is a very chaotic and lawless character. In the film, he not only attempts to murder his partner Blondie by exposure, but he only decides to save him when it becomes clear that Blondie knows the location of the treasure. Tuco then takes Blondie to the mission and actually expects, nay believes, that Blondie will reveal the location of the gold. Of course, Blondie's denial of this information, and the care of the acolytes is what saves him from certain death at the hands of his, now dubiously dubbed, partner.

Tuco makes Blondie put a noose around his own neck in a perverted version of their William Tell routine: Tuco: Get on that stool and put the rope around your neck. I have a different system, my friend; I don't shoot the rope, I shoot the legs from under the stool. We also see him, steal from the old man at the general store, and nearly terrify the poor fella to death in the process. And let's not forget this little gem: Tuco: I'm very happy you are working with me! And we're together again. [pause] Tuco: I get dressed, I kill him and be right back. Blondie: Listen, I forgot to mention... He's not alone. There's five of 'em. Tuco: Five? Blondie: Yeah, five of 'em. Tuco: So, that's why you came to Tuco. [pause] Tuco: It doesn't matter, I'll kill them all. Given these examples Tuco is certainly capable of the crimes read in his hanging, and because the information was deemed important by the screen-writer, it is safe to assume that he actually did these things.

What is interesting about the retelling of his litany of misdeeds is actually what it says about his partner. Clearly "The Good" in Blondie is somewhat skewed, as he repeatedly turns Tuco in for a reward. Thus exploiting the judicial system for his own personal gain. And remember this happens, not once, but multiple times in many different towns and territories. Blondie knows the crimes his partner has committed, and he uses them to his advantage. Remember, he also takes a larger cut: Blondie: You may run the risks, my friend, but I do the cutting. We cut down my percentage - uh, cigar? - liable to interfere with my aim. Tuco: But if you miss you had better miss very well. Whoever double-crosses me and leaves me alive, he understands nothing about Tuco. Nothing! It is despicable that Blondie uses this Madman as a means to an end. A mistake that nearly costs him his life on more than one occasion. Tuco is ugly: the most base and vile of all humanity rolled into one, including a fair dosage of bawdy humor to seal the deal.

The ambiguity of the character is forever sealed in the graveyard, Blondie and Tuco both shoot Angel Eyes, rather than each other. It is the ever thinning line of trust between them that makes this possible and why Blondie knows that not even a fair share of Bill Carson's treasure will keep Tuco from murder to get the rest. This is why he hangs Tuco, to remind him that he is the man with the gun. And what does Tuco think of this?: Tuco: [shouting] Hey, Blond! You know what you are? Just a dirty son-of-a-b-! 2.5k Views · View Upvotes · Answer requested by Written Mar 5, 2013 I'm taking a bit of a contrary position to Devon. Tuco was definitely not a nice man, but I thought at least some of the charges were trumped up to get his bounty even higher. He was a thief and killer. I wouldn't put swindler past him either. Here's a list of the charges: First time through: the condemned is found guilty of the crimes of murder, armed robbery... ...of citizens, state banks, and post offices... ...the theft of sacred objects, arson in a state prison...

...perjury, bigamy, deserting his wife and children... ...inciting prostitution, kidnapping, extortion... ...receiving stolen goods, selling stolen goods... ...passing counterfeit money and contrary to the laws of this state, the condemned is guilty of using marked cards, and loaded dice Second time through: .the condemned, standing before us... sitting before us... ...Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez... ...has been found guilty by the Third District Circuit Court... ...of the following crimes: Murder, assaulting a justice of the peace... ...raping a virgin of the white race... ...and statutory rape of a minor of the black race... ...of derailing a train in order to rob the passengers... They are completely different. That's why I think they were inventing charges for him to be guilty of. On the other hand, he wasn't a nice person, I wouldn't be surprised if he really did do all of those things. :) Also, to be fair, Tuco only tried to kill Blondie after Blondie tried to kill him first in the same way. Blondie misjudged Tuco's ability to survive, and Tuco ended up having some bad luck when going after Blondie.

Written Jun 27, 2013 Yes, he did. Although Eli Wallach's Tuco was (and is) the heart and soul of the film, he was a bad man who would have had no issues with killing Blondie (Clint Eastwood) when or if the opportunity presented itself. Written Mar 29, 2016 It is open to interpretation. Don't listen to the answers here that say, "Yes, he did," as if that's a fact. The movie doesn't tell us. I'm with Andrew in thinking that at least some of them (probably the ones that are in the second list but not the first) are trumped up to raise his bounty (which goes from $2000 to $3000 between those lists, when presumably all he's been doing between the first and second is hanging around with Blondie. (No pun intended.)) It seems like a really plausible thing for his character--a decision that would ultimately make things harder for him in the long run, but which he couldn't resist for the short term payoff. And that first list of crimes is not really that bad, by the standards of these movies?

I mean, our "good" guy, Blondie, has killed plenty of people sometimes with very little cause, is essentially stealing government money with Tuco, blew up a prison in "For A Few Dollars More" (and went on to kill the guy he set loose, for money), and it seems very likely to me that he didn't return the bank fortune he stole from robbers in "For A Few Dollars More". Since other comments here dove into the morality of his character in general, I'll go on and address some of the points raised. Tuco "attempts to murder his partner by exposure", says someone upthread of me, but I don't understand how you can say that and not point out that Blondie did the same to him, even if he didn't stick around to witness every moment of it. Blondie left him tied up, with no money, no weapons, and no provisions. For no reason.

Unless you count Tuco's grumblings about their "partnership" not being equal since Tuco is routinely risking his life (and doesn't even have much choice in the matter--this was all Blondie's idea and if Tuco doesn't play along, Blondie could just turn him in and *not* rescue him). The only time we see Tuco actually commit a crime that is not either A) in self-defense (i.e. he shoots someone who is shooting at him) or B) motivated by personal revenge (i.e. his attempts to kill Blondie), is when he robs the gun shop-keeper. He steals a gun, cartridges, and $200 from the guy. But he doesn't hurt him. And on his way out, he even thinks better of taking the poor guy's booze too and gives it back to him. He puts the "Closed" sign in the guy's mouth as he leaves, but not in a way that will hurt him. Just to say, "Oh, right, fuck you for trying to close the door on me when you saw me stumble into town half-dead." Well, that, and trying to get the gold that belongs to the confederate army.

But of course, Blondie's doing that too. I have no idea what Devon's quote of that "little gem" is supposed to signify. This one: Tuco: I'm very happy you are working with me! And we're together again. [pause] Tuco: I get dressed, I kill him and be right back. Blondie: Listen, I forgot to mention... He's not alone. There's five of 'em. Tuco: Five? Blondie: Yeah, five of 'em. Tuco: So, that's why you came to Tuco. [pause] Tuco: It doesn't matter, I'll kill them all. What, that Tuco's willing to kill? So is Blondie! (It was "six" of them just minutes earlier--Blondie took one of them out.) That is literally what Blondie is telling him. Blondie just doesn't talk as much as Tuco. But he may as well have said, "Hey, Tuco, Angel Eyes has five guys with him and that's a lot for me to take out on my own.

So I'm willing to work with you instead of Angel Eyes if you'll help me kill them." When Blondie first showed up, Tuco had actually thought that maybe Blondie had chosen him over Angel Eyes because he just liked him better. So he's a little disappointed to realize that it's a calculated move. He understands Blondie's position well and he knows Blondie does too. See, since Angel Eyes and Tuco BOTH know where the graveyard is, Blondie really only needs one of them alive to get the gold. So Blondie could just sit back, stay out of the fight, and then go with the winner, either Angel Eyes or Tuco. All that goes through Tuco's head when he says, "So that's why you came to Tuco." He knows he's expendable and that Blondie is using him. But, "It doesn't matter. I'll kill them all." He's brave about it. What else can he do at this point? And if he's dead set on killing Angel Eyes, is it really that surprising or appalling? Angel Eyes had him tortured! Blondie ends up helping Tuco with the fight after all, which Tuco appears kind of touched by.

Why does Blondie join him? Because 1) he's just as willing as Tuco to "kill them all", 2) he actually does like Tuco better than Angel Eyes, and 3) joining this fight doesn't put Blondie at risk the same way it puts Tuco at risk, since he knows Angel Eyes will have told them all not to kill Blondie because only Blondie knows the name on the grave. Blondie is a super calculating, super cold dude, is what I'm saying. And since he's held up as our measure of "Good" in the movie, it's easy for me to see why many people see the movie and have mixed feelings about Tuco, or even root for Tuco over Blondie. One last point: "Blondie knows that not even a fair share of Bill Carson's treasure will keep Tuco from murder to get the rest." Maybe. It's hard to say what would have happened if Blondie had tried to just split the money and part ways. Tuco ran away from Blondie and tried to get to the treasure first--but he could have shot Blondie in the back instead (ok, his gun was unloaded, but he didn't know that).

But instead he just made a run for it and tried to take the money. Shitty of him, but then, the last time money was on the table with Blondie, Blondie took it all and left Tuco with nothing but a rope, so can we really blame Tuco for not trusting Blondie to play fair? I'm also not sure that Blondie unloaded Tuco's gun because he thought Tuco was definitely going to turn to murder, as much as because he understood that... all three of them were going to shoot when it came down to it, if all three of them were armed. The treacherous things they do to each other are not just motivated out of selfishness, but out of fear--because the other person might kill you first. It seems likely to me that Blondie was anticipating Angel Eyes making an appearance, and had already planned the way he wanted the 3-way shootout to go, and he disarmed Tuco so that he wouldn't have to shoot him. Because the only way any of them, even Blondie, could have said, "Hey, let's not shoot," would be if they knew the other person couldn't. So Blondie forced a truce. That was Good of him!

But the fact that Tuco didn't come up with that plan doesn't really make him a worse person. Written Apr 4, 2016 One thing to consider is those are two different lists for two different districts or counties. It wasn't that long ago that people would flee the police who would set up a road block at the state border, because only federal crimes followed you across state lines. Also consider the slow pace of communications and the non-existence of computer databases, and you can see that he was wanted by a particular district circuit court because he committed crimes in that district. And that would make his crimes even worse, because the crimes that appear on both lists he committed in both districts/counties. If he showed up in a town where he had committed no crimes, they wouldn't hang him in that town. They would take him to a town where he was wanted to collect the reward. 253 Views View All Photos (10) Movie Info In the last and the best installment of his so-called "Dollars" trilogy of Sergio Leone-directed "spaghetti westerns," Clint Eastwood reprised the role of a taciturn, enigmatic loner.

Here he searches for a cache of stolen gold against rivals the Bad (Lee Van Cleef), a ruthless bounty hunter, and the Ugly (Eli Wallach), a Mexican bandit. Though dubbed "the Good," Eastwood's character is not much better than his opponents -- he is just smarter and shoots faster. The film's title reveals its ironic attitude toward the canonized heroes of the classical western. "The real West was the world of violence, fear, and brutal instincts," claimed Leone. "In pursuit of profit there is no such thing as good and evil, generosity or deviousness; everything depends on chance, and not the best wins but the luckiest." Immensely entertaining and beautifully shot in Techniscope by Tonino Delli Colli, the movie is a virtually definitive "spaghetti western," rivaled only by Leone's own Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). The main musical theme by Ennio Morricone hit #1 on the British pop charts. Originally released in Italy at 177 minutes, the movie was later cut for its international release.

~ Yuri German, Rovi Rating: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly - Tuco Torture Scene - YouTube The Good, the Bad & the Ugly - Tuco Torture Scene Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Jun 19, 2012 Warning: May contain violent content! The extended Tuco torture scene in the Sergio Leone's western movie: "The Good, the Bad & the Ugly" (1966). Music: a mournful ballad "The Story of a Soldier". Starring: Clint Eastwood as "Blondie a.k.a. the Man with No Name" Eli Wallach as "Tuco" Lee Van Cleef as "Sentenza a.k.a. Angel Eyes" Mario Brega as "Cpl. Wallace" Category Fistful of Pasta: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966) A film by Sergio Leone...

Not so long ago Sergio Leone was only a cult figure, but today even people who are unfamiliar with the western genre know his name. He is now considered by many as the greatest director of western movies in history, eclipsing even the names of a Ford or a Peckinpah. Quintin Tarantino has called The Good, the Bad and the Ugly the best directed movie of all time. The title has been referred to in fashion, construction, baseball, politics, pop music, Lego and God knows what more, while Morricone's theme music has been used (and misused) so often, that it has become instantly recognisable to people of all ages in all corners of the world. According to Dario Argento, who interviewed him at the time for an Italian newspaper, Leone had several films in mind after completing the second dollar movie, a biopic about Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickock (with Sohia Loren as Jane), a remake of Viva Villa! (he had not yet found an actor to play the Wallace Beery part) and an adventure movie set in war times.

Once upon a Time in the West would eventually be his great western with a female leading character (Claudia Cardinale replacing Sophia Loren), while some think The Good, the Bad and the Ugly originated in combining ideas for the remake and the war/adventure movie : Leone's original choice for an 'ugly character', a good-for-nothing who tried to survive in war time by using the hostilities to his own advantage, was Gian Maria Volonté. But like he told to Argento, the character surely would become a neuropath when played by Volonté, and that was not what he had in mind. When he saw Eli Wallach (some say in How the West was won, other say in The Magnificent Seven) he knew he had found his actor, a dramatic actor with a natural talent for comedy, who reminded him of both Wallace Beery and Charlie Chaplin. Eli Wallach is the Ugly... Eli Wallach's Tuco (ambiguous) character was to be the anchor point of the movie, with two more outspoken characters, one good, one bad, contrasting with his 'ugly' nature. Neither of them was to be defined in traditional terms of morality.

Blondie is only 'good' because he isn't as ugly as Tuco, and Tuco is only 'ugly' because he isn't as bad as Angel Eyes. But all three are rather merciless opportunists, ready to kill if necessary, and 'villains' in the traditional good/bad polarisation of the western movie. Leone wanted to demystify the adjectives, and at the same time show the absurdity of war. He was, in his own words, pursuing a theme Chaplin had exposed in Monsieur Verdoux, a study of a 20th century Bluebeard, operating on the eve of WW II, who confuses the people who have sentenced him to death with questions about the true meanings of good and bad. The story of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is relatively simple. Tuco, a Mexican outlaw, teams up with Blondie, an American bounty hunter, Blondie. The American will turn him in, collect the reward money, but rescue him from hanging by shooting through the rope. As a couple of illusionists, they travel from town to town, repeating the same trick everywhere.

Angel Eyes, on the other hand, is a hired gun who is looking for a Confederate soldier named Bill Carson, who knows of the whereabouts of a load of gold. The two stories intertwine when Tuco, who was double-crossed by Blondie, leads his former partner into the desert to kill him. They meet a moribund Bill Carson, who tells them about the gold, hidden on a cemetery: to Tuco he tells the name of the cemetery, to Blondie the name of the grave. The two dress up like Conferate soldiers, but they're captured by the Union and brought to a prison camp. Tuco has taken the identity of Bill Carson, and attracts the attention of Angel Eyes, who works in the camp as a sergeant. After a long series of incidents, with endless double-crossings and changing alliances, the three men arrive at the cemetery ... Lee Van Cleef is the Bad... The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is an assured work, made by a film maker at the peak of his art. The movie has been called a comical nightmare as well as a philosophical movie about the horrors of war.

As a literary work, The good, the Bad and the Ugly is deeply rooted in the tradition of the picaresque novel and the commedia dell'arte, two Latin literary traditions. It's also a character study Artaud style, which means the characters are illustrated by means of their actions and by confronting them to each other. Tuco, the Ugly, is open and direct, acting out of an earthy simplicity, without much recourse to postures, nor showing any lasting feelings of remorse or hate. Tuco is all but cunning, his feelings are changeable to an almost ridiculous degree, but they're not fake: every time he tries to fake a feeling (Blondie being his one and only true friend for example), he shows up for what he really is, a child begging for a cookie. Compared to Tuco, both the Good and the Bad are calculating personalities. Blondie misses Tuco's immediate strong emotions, but he has more insight in the vicissitudes of life.

He doesn't fathom the true meaning of war ("I have never seen so many men wasted so badly"), but he understands some of the personal tragedy of the people involved and the pain they suffer, both psychically and mentally: there seems to be some understanding between him and the sympathetic Union officer, and he shows real compassion when he meets a dying Confederate soldier. Furthermore, he discharges Tuco's gun prior to the final shootout, so he won't have to kill him. The Bad, Angel Eyes, is shown as a cold professional, who will execute any assignment he's been paid for, and does so with a sadistic smile. Intellectually he is the direct opposite of Blondie: he has no feeling of empathy, but he understands the mechanisms of war so well he can use them to his own purpose. His calculated brutality is often frightening These types are all played to perfection by the three formidable leads. We're so familiar with the characters and the actors playing them, that it's hard to imagine Leone had someone else in mind for the part of Angel Eyes.

For the second time in his career, he thought of Charles Bronson (he had already wanted him for A Fistful of Dollars), and Van Cleef was contracted very late in the process. Actually, he made this film back to back with The Great Gundown. Leone's relationship with Wallach and (especially) Van Cleef was excellent, but he and Eastwood began to drift apart. According to Leone Clint had asked too much money ($ 250.000), and Clint was dissatisfied because he felt that Eli Wallach had the better part. There's one small element of Eastwood's character, that has escaped most people who have written about the movie: he picks up the famous poncho from the side of the dying soldier, wearing the distinctive garment only in the film's finale. The two other parts of the trilogy are both set after the Civil War, and when Blondie rides out of this movie, he is on his way to A Fistful of Dollars. Like this the trilogy can start all over again, ad infinitum.

It leaves us with the difficulty that No Name would be a wealthy man at the beginning of Fistful, which makes it unlikely he would ever want to mess with the Rojos and the Baxters, but it's an elegant narrative device. I like it. Clint Eastwood is the Good... Two other works of art inspired Leone in particular while making The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, an Italian film from 1959, La Grande Guerra, directed by Mario Monicelli (and co-scripted by Luciano Vicenzioni, one of Leone's regular scriptwriters), about a group of not-so-brave soldiers who try to avoid war hostilities, and the novella Deux Amis by 19th Century French author Guy de Maupassant, about two French fishermen who accidently get lost between the lines during WW I. Both works are rather light-hearted at the surface, but thought-provoking and deeply pessimistic at the core. The same qualities shine through in the above mentioned Monsieur Verdoux.

In the The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, the adventures of the three men are often seasoned with funny one-liners and moments of great burlesque humour, but there are also fast shootouts, elaborated scenes of physical and mental torment, and moments of great brutality. Every now and then the adventure story is punctuated by harrowing scenes of the war, showing that the conflict was an inferno of death and destruction. We get images of ruined towns, mutilated men, improvised army hospitals full of heavily wounded casualties, war thieves digging their own grave before being executed etc. Often described – even by American critics – as the most impressive depiction of the Civil War, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is also a bitter foreshadowing of the great conflicts of the 20th century: The scenes of the entranced armies fighting a bloody battle over a bridge, seem to refer to the French and Belgian battlefields of WW I, while Leone has admitted that he thought partly of the Nazi concentration camps with their Jewish orchestras when he was filming the scenes in the Northern prison camp. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is today on top of most people's favourite westerns.

Funny, violent, meaningful, it's very close to perfection. One or two jokes maybe are a bit insipid, and the shootout in a ghost town, Blondie and Tuco versus Angel Eyes' men, seems a bit thrown in, but otherwise there's preciously little to find fault with. Some scenes, like the 'triello', the shootout with three on the cemetary, and 'the ecstacy of gold', Tuco's run around the graves of Sad Hill, are among the most beautiful ever filmed, and Morricone's score is one of the best of his career. If you haven't seen this film yet, you have some work to do. But I can assure that it's pleasant work. DVD Info: Most recent releases have some 18 minutes of restored scenes, cut from the original theatrical release. On previous editions most of these scenes were added as extras, with Italian dialogue. The "Grotto scene" is a completely new scene, the "Sorocco sequence" a photo and text reconstruction of an apparently lost scene. The Lee van Cleef part is better defined now, and the scene with him making inquiries about Bill Carson in an improvised army hospital, is particularly strong.

Other scenes seem to add little to the movie, and many have expressed the opinion that MGM should have created a menu option, so we could watch the film with or without them. Eli Wallach and Clint Eastwood dubbed their new lines, while Simon Prescott replaced the late Lee van Cleef. The R1 and R2 releases have the same extras (documentaries, commentaries, interviews, an uncut version of the Tuco torture scene, cut in the movie) and similar video quality, but audio options differ considerably. All have English DD 5.1, but US R1 Special Edition also includes the original Italian mono track. The latter (sadly) lacks on the European R2 editions (which have slightly different names in different countries), but they offer (for obvious commercial reasons) DD 5.1 tracks in French and German. The Japanese release, called Ultimate Edition, offers an English DTS track.

Question: In the 1966 film "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly", who played Tuco, "the Ugly"?
Answer: Eli Wallach